Page 57 of Creed
As quickly as possible, I recapped everything that had happened to us since we set off on our trip. It felt like so long ago that we were packing up for a regular camping trip, but thinking back on it, I realized that it had been less than two weeks.
“All of that just to make Creed translate Lisianthus’s journal,” Brody said once I’d finished. He was pacing back and forth, hand on his chin as he was deep in thought. “That seems excessive, although I suppose it depends on what they’re looking for. Did you ever find out what the Milford sisters supposedly stole?”
Feeling dizzy after the stress of the last few minutes, my legs gave out and I sat on the bumper of the truck. “No. Chester Grieve obviously knew, but never said. Although, I suspect Creed might have an idea. He suddenly got squirrely about the contents of the journal while we were escaping and stopped talking about it. I think he might have figured something out, but I never asked.”
Magnus’s suddenly slammed his fist into the side of the tuck, denting the metal. “Forget about that. What matters is that Creed has been captured again. We need to find him before this cult decides he’s not worth the hassle of keeping alive.”
I looked back and forth between Magnus and Brody, hoping one of them would have an answer. “So, where do we go? Back to where they were keeping us before? I don’t even know what direction it was. Creed planned out our whole escape route.”
“Maybe,” Brody said, though he didn’t sound convinced. “But if Creed’s already escaped from there once, they may not want to take him back there again. Is there any other place you can think of where this cult might take people? Any place they mentioned, even in passing?”
I shook my head, disappointed that I couldn’t give them a better answer, but when I opened my mouth to tell them this, another voice spoke in my place.
“The lake house.”
Magnus, Brody, and I all jumped at the unexpected sound of a child’s voice. I’d completely forgotten about Robyn and Mavis, who were still waiting in the truck, and based on Magnus and Brody’s surprise, they’d also overlooked that part of my story.
“The lake house?” I asked as asked as I looked up at the two kids in the truck.
Robyn smiled back at me from where he sat amid the boxes. “Yeah. It’s a house, by a lake, that always belongs to the leader. Only the leader is allowed to go there. The adults say it’s a spiritual retreat that the leader uses for isolated reflection, but I know our leader has taken people there before. Is that the kind of place you’re talking about?”
One by one, I lifted the kids out of the tuck and set them down on the ground. “That is exactly the kind of place we’re talking about. You don’t happen to know where it is, do you?”
Robyn,it turned out, was not able to provide the lake house’s exact location, but he was able to give a pretty accurate description. Based on this, Brody and Magnus were able to figure out which lake the house was likely located on, and we immediately headed there. The truck that Magnus and Brody had brought to come find me easily charged across the rugged mountain roads, like the machine itself was on a mission. Magnus and Brody sat in the front, silent but determined as they prepared to find their friend. Meanwhile, I sat in the backseat with the two kids, who fell asleep in my lap almost as soon as we started driving.
It had been a long couple of days. I didn’t blame them for being tired. I was as well, and if I wasn’t so worried about Creed, I would have joined them in sleep.
We found the lake right where it was supposed to be. It was a large body of water, but I couldn’t see any signs of a house. Wedrove around the roads that encircled the lake, looking for any sign of a structure. Not all the roads went close to the lake, and there were large stretches where I couldn’t even see the water through the trees. Even if there was a lake house out here, we might drive right past it without even knowing.
“Wait, what was that?” Brody said as he suddenly grabbed Magnus’s arm, who was driving.
Without a word, Magnus immediately put the truck in reverse and backed down the road to try and see what had caught Brody’s attention.
“There.”
Brody pointed toward a small dirt road, barely visible between the trees. It wouldn’t have looked any different than a hiking trail, except for the metal gate blocking the road. The metal had been painted green, so it blended right in with the scenery. I would never have seen it as we drove past.
Magnus slapped the wheel and turned the car toward the new road. “Glad to see you haven’t lost those sniper eyes of yours, Brody. Someone get out there and move the gate so we can get through.”
I was out the door before he’d even finished speaking. The gate was heavy, but luckily, it wasn’t locked. I was able to drag it aside without too much trouble and let Magnus bring the truck through. Then, just to be safe, I closed it behind us. If any of the cult members were patrolling the area, then I wanted to make sure nothing looked out of place to alert them to our presence.
We drove a little way down the new road, when Brody told Magnus to pull the truck over.
“We should leave it here and approach on foot. That way we can surprise them.”
Magnus found a break in the trees where it was dry and flat enough for him to take the truck off the road and parked it. We gathered up a few bushes and placed them in front of the truck to hide it. It was a rushed camouflage job, and anyone looking too closely was bound to notice the truck, but hopefully, we wouldn’t need to sneak around for too long anyway.
“You two stay here,” I told the kids right before we left. “We’re going to lock the truck, so don’t try to leave. Just stay right where you are, and we’ll be back soon.”
They both nodded at me with wide eyes and their mouths pinched in identical looks of concern. I hated leaving them alone in the middle of the forest, but there wasn’t anything else to do with them.
If the cult members did come across the pair, surely, they wouldn’t hurt a couple of kids. Robyn and Mavis were no danger to them.
It was with a guilty heart that I left the kids behind and approached the end of the road on foot along with Magnus and Brody.
When we reached the end of the road, we stopped and hunkered down in the underbrush. A cabin sat off in the distance, right on the water’s edge. Several cars and trucks were parked around it, haphazardly scattered across the grass. A pair of armed men stood beside the door like security guards. I recognized one of them. It was the same man that we’d knocked out and locked inside our room when we escaped the first time.
“We’re definitely in the right place,” I whispered to Brody and Magnus.
